Movie review: The new animated Spidey movie is more fun than its predecessors

Ed Symkus More Content Now

Friday

Dec 14, 2018 at 1:01 AM

Here’s a line from “The Matrix,” spoken by Laurence Fishburne: “He is the one.”

Here’s some dialogue from “Highlander,” delivered by Christopher Lambert: “There can be only one.”

Now, check out a few words from “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” as narrated by Spider-Man, who is voiced by Chris Pine: “There’s only one Spider-Man, and you’re looking at him.”

Well, yeah, there’s only one Spidey at the start of this terrific and often eccentric animated feature. That would be Peter Parker, the teen who was bitten by a radioactive spider and ... you know the rest. But now a decade has gone by, and Spidey’s a little tired of it. That’s OK, since shortly after bright, popular middle schooler Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is introduced here - along with his mom, his cop dad, and his hip Uncle Aaron - Miles, too, is bitten by a radioactive spider. After that ... let’s see, he starts hearing voices in his head, his hands and feet become very sticky, and he bumps into Spider-Man, doing battle against Kingpin (Liev Schreiber), with Spidey trying to stop the big villain from running experiments involving a super collider and multiple dimensions. Miles also comically and uncomfortably meets a new girl at school who first calls herself Gwanda before changing it to Wanda (Hailee Steinfeld).

And then Spider-Man is killed, and the voice of Chris Pine is gone from the film. Apologies if you think that’s a spoiler, but it happens very early in the film, and is the springboard that gets everything else cooking.

Before you can say, “With great power comes great responsibility,” some guy named Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) shows up in town, tells us in voiceover that he was bitten by a radioactive spider, and is Spider-Man, and demands to know who this kid is wearing a makeshift Spidey suit. What the heck is going on here? Don’t think about it too long, because Wanda - whose name is really Gwen Stacy - Gwanda, get it? - was also bitten by a radioactive spider, and goes by the super name of Spider-Woman. All of this is before the coolest of them all, Spider-Man Noir (Nic Cage), appears - yes, another radioactive spider victim - along with enough others to call themselves the Spider-Gang. There’s even an extremely feisty Aunt May (Lily Tomlin) and a female Doc Ock (Kathryn Hahn), and one of the final appearances by Stan Lee, at the 35-minute mark, playing the owner of Stan’s Collectibles. Whew, this is getting complicated.

But it’s also probably the most fun to be offered from any Spider-Man-related film. There’s plenty of comedy mixed in with wild action; an abundance of villains - Prowler and Scorpion, among others - to keep the heroes busy; a bit of angst, because what would a Spider-Man film be without some; and a generous supply of snappy discourse between characters.

There’s also, thankfully, an explanation as to what the heck is going on: Doc Ock and Kingpin are the ones behind that super collider business, and by turning it on, they’ve accidentally opened a portal into the multiverse - a series of other dimensions - through which all of these Spider-folks keep popping.

Written with tongue firmly in cheek, and a loyalty to Spider-Man and his fans, the film is presented in heavily stylized animation that exists somewhere between hand-drawn and CG, and is accompanied by an unabashed comic book sensibility, complete with visual sounds effects of the sort (“Wham!” “Zap!”) that were staples of the old “Batman” TV show.

It’s also about young Miles coming into his own by both getting his act together concerning his new powers and realizing the importance of family, which is one of the film’s main messages, which is almost as big the battles between the heroes and villains. When it’s over, there’s once again, though not for the reasons you’d guess, only one Spider-Man. But you’re going to want to stay for the post-credits sequence. That’s when things start to get really strange.

Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com

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